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The five steps to great content marketing

Whether you plan to do your content marketing yourself, or hire someone to work with you and manage it, there are certain things you need to think about.

Below is a list of things we run through with all our clients looking to improve their content, no matter what stage they’re currently at.

# 1 – The plan

Before you get started with content marketing (or any form of marketing, for that matter) it’s important you have a fully defined plan.

You need to understand what it is your business is trying to achieve – do you want to promote a new service or product, increase brand awareness, or develop stronger relationships with your existing customers? Every organisation is different, and there’s no reason why you should have only one objective.

The only important thing is that you know what it is, and how your efforts are going to help you achieve it.

#2 – The audience

I keep banging on about your audience, and I’m sorry if that’s getting boring, but it’s really very important. You must never forget who it is you’re talking to, and why they’d be interested in hearing what it is you’ve got to say.

Think about your audience – do you just have one type? Or do you need to find a way to get multiple messages out to a wide range of people? Perhaps you have a service that would only benefit SMEs, but you also offer something for larger corporations. In which case, you need to make sure you have relevant content that appeals to both types of client.

# 3 – The development

Once you know what it is you’re trying to achieve, and who you’re trying to achieve it with, you need to start developing your content. This doesn’t necessarily mean writing down everything you’re going to be sharing in blog, meme or infographic form (though, you should do that too) but more how you’re going to say it.

The key to building relationships with your audience via content is establishing a tone of voice they can relate to, and they know will always be there. That tone of voice will be determined by your company brand and the values you hold. It will also be influenced by who is doing the actual content – so try to keep that as consistent as possible.

Do you want to be funny, or are you more serious? Are your posts going to be factual, or do you want to inject a degree of humour? Are you going to talk about the industry as a whole, or your own business?

# 4 – The delivery

All of this is brilliant to get you started, but once you’ve got content you need to get it out there. Before you start it’s worth thinking about how you’re going to deliver your pieces. Will you publish articles directly to your website? If so, how often are you going to update them, and what topics are you going to cover?

How are you going to optimise your content, and what social media channels are you going to use to help you distribute it?

# 5 – The follow-up

Content marketing is all about the interactions; there is no point in putting information out there if no one is going to see it. The only way you’re going to know whether it’s having an impact is to keep an eye on it.

Make sure you’re constantly looking at what content you have put out, and whether that is influencing visitors to your website or blog. Are people actually interacting with what you have to say? What topics are more popular than others? If people are commenting, what are they saying? Are you thanking them for getting in touch?

If you’re reading to start thinking about how to improve your content and what you offer your audience, call 0161 883 2024 and speak to Lu, or email us on lu@timesavingheroes.co.uk.

We’re on hand to help you with every stage of the process if you need, or can just guide you in the right direction should you need a bit of support.